


Of Love Untold

by navaan



Category: DCU (Comics), Trinity (Comics)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, M/M, Missing Scene, Pining, Unrequited Love, established Clark Kent/Lois Lane, past Diana (Wonder Woman)/Clark Kent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 03:10:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8604856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Bruce reflects on the old Clark while meeting the new one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> eaction Fic to issue #1 of Trinity Vol. 2 (2016-)

The first time Lois Lane - the new Lois Lane, who he supposed might have been a Lane-Kent at a time in another universe and was now calling herself Smith - invited him to her home, he felt uncomfortable. And, of course, he had no intention whatsoever to actually go. He was busy. He always was. He had no time for the involvement – and he was not the kind of man to get mixed up with the private life of “work” friends. Acquaintances. The Clark he knew was dead. But Diana had also received an invitation and like the princess she was, had decided to make sure both of them honored the memory of the Clark they had lost by not disgracing themselves in front of this new Clark who had suddenly appeared in their lives and his family. 

“I can’t help it,” Bruce grumbled, when she appeared in the cave to drag him away. “This makes me uneasy.”

A sad smile graced her lips and it was a shock to realize how thoughtlessly he’d just been thinking of his own discomfort here, of his own strategies and confused reactions and nothing else. After all Diana had loved Clark. Had been loved by Clark.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“He has a family,” Diana said, “and that happiness I would never begrudge one of our greatest heroes. And his wife was the one reaching out, because wherever they came from, we were his best friends. We were important to him. As we were to out Clark.”

“Yes,” Bruce agreed. “And that makes me uneasy. _Lois Lane_ calls my home to ask me to dinner, Diana. She called the home of _Bruce Wayne_ to ask Batman to have dinner at Superman’s house.”

“Clark texted you all the time. Asked you to share food. Our Clark.” She looked surprisingly calm about it. “She’s a different Lois Lane. Not the one who exposed Superman's secret to the world. I met her. I like her. A mother, fierce and protective of her son. And she reached out to us, because she says Clark still needs us in his life. Because we’re his best friends. Were. And I think she's right.”

He wouldn’t lie, because there was no point in it. She knew him too well. All of this was unexpected and a complication. He couldn’t help seeing the danger. His paranoid discomfort had served him well over the years and then he had let Superman in and then Superman had died. And now a new one was here and he felt like thy cycle was starting all over again, just more complicated than the first time.

“We need him,” he said as the only concession he was able to make right now. “We worked well together the few times we met. Superman will always be an asset.”

“Yes,” Diana agreed and smiled. “Now get dressed in something that makes you look more presentable and drive me out to that farm in one of your fancy cars.”

He laughed. “You can fly.”

“I’d like not to draw the attention.” It served as the only explanation he would accept without question and once again he had to respect her for her strategic mind.

For the most part they drove in silence. But an hour into the drive, Diana suddenly stretched and said: “I still miss him. I’ll remember him and miss him forever. But I'm glad Superman is still part of this world.”

“You loved him.”

“I love him,” she corrected. “I will always. But love has always been a much broader concept in my culture.” She cocked her head to the side and caught his eye in the rear-view mirror. “I saw Steve Trevor yesterday and… I feel my memories are behaving strangely, but I think I always loved him too.”

“Trevor?”

“He is a good man.” Diana did not sound like she was defending the man or her own choices, but simply stating a fact. She had mourned and Bruce would be the last person to throw any accusations at her. Amazing as she was, Diana deserved to have as much love as she was able to give. He knew enough about the complications of love and about the way grief continued even when the scars weren’t visible any longer, not to judge anyone for loving. “You always loved Clark, too. That’s why this is so hard,” she concluded.

He did not take his eyes away from the road and he did not meet her eyes in the rear-view mirror. “He’s not the same person.”

“No,” she agreed. “Not the same person.” And to his relief she left it at that.

The Kents - because despite the name they were using that was who they truly were - greeted them outside the farm. The only thing Bruce could think was that Clark would have liked it: a farm, a wife and son. A life just like his Ma and Pa had lived it.

There was no room here for a Bruce Wayne or a Batman.

But Lois smiled at him and the other Clark, awkwardly shook his hand, looking at him like he knew him, and knew exactly what was going through his head at this very moment.

Perhaps he really knew.

But all he could think was: “I never told him. I knew loving him was a bad idea, so I never told him. And now he’s gone. And you're not him. But you are.”

Clark smiled. Lois smiled. He had his arm around her shoulder. She touched his hand. The love between them was tangible.

And for the first time Bruce felt like he had found his friend again, but forever lost the chance at something else.

Perhaps it had never been meant to be.

He followed Diana into the house, and tried very hard not to think about what might be going through _her_ head as they were let into the domestic life of Superman and his family that was a far cry from the lives Diana and Bruce were living. Time to forget about the things he hadn’t told Clark before he died and move forward from here. There was nothing Batman couldn’t do with Superman and Wonder Woman at his side. 

Superman was alive.

That was good. Nothing else mattered.

Finally, he allowed himself an honest smile.


End file.
